Protective outerwear for firefighters must meet particularly stringent requirements. Most fundamentally, such outerwear must be able to withstand intense heat from external sources, but also keep the wearer from getting burned. Thus, firefighters' jackets are commonly constructed with multiple layers: an outer layer or “shell” made of specialized fire-resistant fabric, and at least one inner insulating layer. A breathable liner is also commonly included between the outer shell and the insulating layer to keep liquid water from penetrating the garment while allowing water vapor to escape. The outer shell, insulating layer, and liner are co-extensive throughout the garment. In some garments the insulating layer can be removeable. The garment is furthermore desirably as lightweight as possible to minimize physical exertion of the wearer, and is as flexible as possible to minimize restricting the wearer's freedom of movement.
From these considerations, one can appreciate why such protective garments are highly specialized and expensive. One can also appreciate why it is desirable to extend the useful life of such garments, including in appropriate cases repairing worn garments rather than simply discarding them.
In addition to the requirements discussed above, firefighters' outerwear desirably is provided with visibility-enhancing materials so that the firefighter will be more conspicuous in daytime and/or nighttime lighting conditions. Most commonly these materials are applied in the form of a free-standing polymer- or fabric-backed, ribbon-like trim that is sewn on top of the fire-resistant shell. See, e.g., FIGS. 1 and 2, which depict front and back views respectively of a PRIOR ART fireman's coat 1 with known visibility-enhancing trim material 2 applied thereto by sewing. The trim material 2 includes a fluorescent coating 4 on a fire resistant fabric backing and retroreflective sheeting 6 covering a portion of the material. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,592 (Bingham) for further details. Prismatic retroreflective polymer-based trim products that are also fluorescent in daytime conditions are also being sold today for application to firemen's coats. The co-extensive nature of the layers used in PRIOR ART protective garments such as firemen's coats is depicted in FIG. 3, where the outermost layer 8 represents a fire-resistant fabric, middle layer 10 represents a breathable liner, and inner layer 12 represents quilted insulation. In some firecoat designs the outer fire resistant shell is stitched to the inner layer(s), while in others the outer shell is not attached to the inner layers in any way so that either component can be cleaned or replaced separately. Note, however, that certain protective garment designs—for example, wildlands/wilderness standard firefighter garments—consist essentially of only the outer fire-resistant fabric layer, eliminating entirely any inner layers such as the breathable liner and insulation.
Application of known free-standing visibility-enhancing trims to the protective garment achieves the goal of increasing the daytime and nighttime visibility of the wearer. Further, when the visibility-enhancing trim becomes damaged in use, it is known to repair the garment by stripping away any remaining damaged trim material and applying a new piece of trim material in its place, again on top of the outer fire resistant shell of the garment.
But there are also disadvantages associated with this approach of enhancing firefighters' visibility. The added pieces of trim add weight and thickness, and reduce flexibility of the garment. Also, the free edges of the trim adjacent to the stitching may catch or snag on external objects. Even if visibility-enhancing material is applied directly to the outer shell material, when the garment becomes damaged in use it becomes expensive to replace or repair. It would be advantageous to provide the protective garment with the desired visibility-enhancing features, while avoiding one or more these disadvantages.